Tales from the Safehouse Guys are Assholes
by KatalinaGinn
Summary: This piece fits in The Safehouse timeline found at The Gundmans and Demons Safehouse (http:www.xanga.comhome.aspx?userofgundamsanddemons). This is the pre-New Years Party entry. It probably won't make a bit of sense if you're not following the Safehouse's


Tales from the Safehouse - Guys are Assholes

Kyou paused outside Mika's door, considering before knocking. He knew she was extremely upset with Duo. She had to be to decide not to go to the New Years Party. Mika loved it when everyone got together and had a good time, even if they did get intoxicated in the process. She enjoyed seeing everyone get along. So to be locked up in her room she had to be royally pissed.

From what Kurama had told him, it was hardly surprising. The younger of the gami's was much more serious than her brother Shinigami. Duo makes light of everything, treating life as if it is one continuous joke. He lives for the moment and is always seeking out "fun" things to do (such as prank other house members). Those who are close to him know that this is merely his way of coping with his terrible past, and that he hides his true feelings deep inside… but most see him as a happy-go-lucky prankster.

Mika, on the other hand, was calm and collected. A quick thinker, she hardly ever loses her cool in the face of stressful situations. Around friends she relaxes a bit and shows some of herself, but only what she wants to show. The two seemed every bit the twins they were supposed to be, with one sole exception – Duo was loud and hyper, while Mika was calm and quiet. Yet both hide their true emotions, both dislike discussing their past, and both most definitely are quick thinkers.

Kyou had been surprised when he heard the events that led to Mika locking herself in her room. Mika was usually quick to join her brother in teasing, or as the case would be she would have been teasing him back. That the topic has turned sexual really shouldn't have changed that. Mika was just as capable of making lude references as her brother, though she usually didn't out of politeness. Wufei was truly the only shy one – it was expected that he would get upset, especially when placed together with Mika. Kyou knew he liked the girl, but he also knew – via Duo – that he was to insecure with himself to want to try to get her. Mika, however, usually bantered easily with her brother despite being paired with Wufei. She hid it well, but to a fellow neko it was obvious that the attraction was mutual. Mika just wasn't the type to make the first move.

So why had she gotten upset? No doubt she was annoyed that the others had decided to make it their personal goal to get her and Wufei together, but she wasn't one to be bothered this greatly by something so stupid. She was perfectly capable of putting them in their place if she got angry. He had half expected a few people to have some rather close encounters with her throwing knives for it, but instead she had locked herself away. Something was eating at her. Something she didn't think she could talk to Duo about, who knew everything about her.

Bracing himself for some form of counter attack, Kyou took a deep breath and knocked. Silence greeted him.

"Mika? It's Kyou…"

Still no reply. Cautiously, Kyou pressed an ear to the door. To his surprise he could hear hammering, along with some country music. _Yep, she's upset. If the country's on she's either really happy or really pissed, and we all know she's not happy._

Kyou knocked again, harder this time to be heard over the music. The hammering stopped, and then the music. "Come in, Kyou."

"So you did hear me the first time?" he said, stepping into the room.

"No, but no one else is dumb enough to come near me when I'm angry." She gave him a smirk, but he wasn't looking. Kyou was distracted by the room.

Mika was up on a ladder, obviously having been hammering up the last of a row of those hanging wood-bead room dividers to separate the bedroom area from the living area. All the rooms were set up so that the entry led to a small multi-purpose living area, with a bedroom behind it. Most of the other rooms had a closed wall between them with only a door for access, but Mika had obviously changed hers. Most of the wall was torn out to make an open entryway about the size of three doors. Instead of doors, though, were the wood curtain things. It made the room seem much bigger than it actually was.

"I see you're dislike of small spaces applies to your living quarters as well?"

Mika gave a soft laugh as Kyou continued to look around. He doubted anyone had seen her room yet, and it obviously wasn't quite finished. The walls, a soft deep brown, smelled of fresh paint, and what little furniture he could see was still covered in plastic. The floors were that laminate imitation wood, easy to clean but still very easy on the eyes. He got the impression Mika liked open spaces and earthy tones – it suited her calm personality well, though it was a bit dark. Looking back to Mika he confirmed that the walls were freshly painted. Her hair was back in a messy bun at the nape of her neck. Kyou briefly wondered if she ever wore it down – it seemed to always be in a messy bun or at least a ponytail. He wasn't even sure how long it was. She also had on ragged blue jeans with wide holes torn in the knees and an oversized t-shirt, both smeared with the same brown that was on the walls.

"Were you painting the walls or yourself?" He laughed softly as Mika gave him a "look." The lack of power in it told him she didn't feel he was there to cause trouble.

"A little of both I think." She replied, rolling her eyes at his smirk. "But since you're here, you can help me finish." She hoped off the ladder and tossed a wadded up plastic bag at him, then opened up a can of paint.

"Finish? It looks fine to me… Besides, I came to talk, not paint…" He trailed off as she rolled her eyes again.

"You're a talented boy, I'm sure you can handle doing both."

Kyou snorted, but nodded. If it meant she would talk about what was bothering her, then he could handle painting. Maybe it would help ease the tension a little. "So what are we painting?"

"The walls, silly." Mika was pouring the paint into two shallow pans, another wadded up plastic bag in her hand. "That dark color is the base color. This," she indicated a much lighter brown dispensed in the pans, "is what we're going to bag over it to lighten it up and give it some texture."

Kyou looked dumbfounded. "Bag?" he said helplessly.

That got a small laugh out of her, which relieved Kyou greatly. She was lightening up a bit – that would make the talk much easier.

"Yes, bag. It's a method of decorative painting. Here, let me show you." And with that, she took her wadded up bag and dipped it into the paint, then proceeded to blot the paint onto the wall, leaving paint in the odd pattern of the wrinkles in the bag. She placed the blots close together, creating an interesting effect. The light color brightened up the room, while the dark background gave the wall an interesting texture. It made the wall look less like a hard boundary and more like a quiet edge to the room, softening the entire room and once again making it look much larger. Mika really liked her open spaces.

"Nice. And easy enough that even I can't screw it up." Kyou flashed her a smile, and was glad when she chuckled and returned it. Several minutes passed in comfortable quiet, with only the faint sounds of the bags crumpling on the wall. The work had a relaxing effect on both of them – a welcome distraction from the tension that inevitably lay ahead.

With two of them working together, it didn't take long to finish the job. Kyou noted that his observation was correct – the room seemed to have brightened considerably, and was much softer than before. Mika moved thru the curtain to the other room for a moment, and re-emerged bearing two oversized pillows in a deep forest green. Her eyes betrayed her uneasiness as she handed Kyou one.

Letting her pillow fall to the floor where it may, she sat down on it and gave him a weak smile. "All right, you've earned it. What do you want to talk about Kyou?"

Kyou followed her example and sat heavily on his pillow. "Actually, I just wanted to ask you to come to the party tonight. It would hardly be a party without the hostess…" Kyou hesitated, but gathered his determination and plowed ahead, "… and Wufei would really like it if you came."

He half expected to meet the business end of one of her knives, or at least to be accused of joining the "get Mika and Wu together" club. But Mika just sighed, looking at the floor as she leaned on her arms knees. Kyou waited patiently, glad that she hadn't attacked him, but worried further by the lack of her usual spirit.

After what seemed like forever, he barely heard her whisper, "I wouldn't count on that. After all, humans and demons don't mix well."

_So she's not really mad at Duo after all… She's just upset because she really does like Wufei, but he's human. _Kyou considered that. He had heard Kurama say something like that… that humans seemed to have some sixth sense about non-humans, and often shunned them. Mika was half human though… he decided to play dumb to see what she meant. "So what? You're half human. Sure, humans don't like non-humans all that well, but you're still human enough –"

"No, I'm not," she cut him off.

"Why do you say that? I mean, you even lived as a human for such a long time… and Kurama said you had lots of friends…"

"I had friends, yeah… but not _good_ friends. Not the kind that will be there, thick or thin. They liked me well enough to keep me around… but they knew not to get too close. Like they could sense that I was different or something."

"Oh…" Kyou waited a few minutes for that though to settle before continuing. "You know, no one out there" - he gestured toward the living room – "has done that to you. Wufei included. I know some of them are human, just really advanced humans, but I've never seen any of them treat you any different than they do everyone else, human or not."

Mika was silent for a moment. For a second he thought he had gotten through to her, but catching a glimpse of her eyes, he realized they hadn't reached the root of the problem yet. So he waited for her to take the next step.

Mika took a deep breath and let it out slowly, then shifted so that she was starting at the wall to his left - enough that he could see her reactions, but she didn't have to meet his eyes. He realized this was intentional. She was trying to let him help… but she was also reluctant to go on.

After a moment, she continued quietly. "There were some who would let me be a real friend to them, or so I thought. And for a while I believed it… but then they would always show their true colors…" she stopped, unable to continue.

Though she showed no sign of it, Kyou suspected she was on the verge of tears. _Always so calm and collected in the face of pressure… How does she do it?_ Kyou spent a few moments analyzing that bit of info. _Inferring that she and Wufei should couple up was what started this… That would presume they had feelings for one another… and now she's said that humans have lied about their feelings to her because of what she is… I'd go so far as to say taken advantage of her trusting nature… So, maybe she thinks that because Wufei is human, he'll do the same to her? Because he's human too?_

Kyou realized that nothing he could say would belay that fear. From the depth of emotion in her voice he could tell that this wasn't something that had happened just once or twice. This had happened many times, most likely involving dating scenarios as well. He was willing to wager that Mika had been in love at least once before, and had had her heart broken badly. And she believed it was because of the fact that she wasn't a true human. _Guys as such assholes…_ Belatedly he realized he ranked among "guys," but it didn't matter at the moment.

"You know," Kyou started slowly, carefully considering each word, "I can't deny that most guys are assholes. Human or not. Hell, I suppose I'm one to. Because we seem to have this fear of telling the people we care about how we really feel… or don't feel. Sometimes I wonder how you women put up with us. You're always having to guess whether we're putting up a front to look good for the other guys, or if we're being sincere. Half the time I'm not sure we know ourselves. Nothing I can do or say is going to help you tell the difference. But I do know this… Any guy can tell a girl he loves her and it be a lie, just to please his peers. That's easy. And of course it's just as easy to laugh off the matter if he has absolutely no interest whatsoever, and still keep his pride. But it takes one helluva guy to sit and take the abuse and _not_ say it, just because he doesn't want to fail her like so many have before."

Kyou kept his gaze deliberately on the wall ahead of him, so that he could only see Mika out of the corner of his eye. He didn't want her to feel pressured to accept his explanation for Wufei's strange behavior. For a long time she didn't move, seeming to just absorb the information.

Then at length, she stretched out, leaning back on her hands so she was looking at the ceiling. "Well I'll give you one thing… Guys are indeed assholes." With that she titled her head back a bit more, smiling at him upside down.

Kyou let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding and laughed softly. "Yeah, we are. But don't go telling the other guys I let you in on that secret. Or I'll have to beat you up." He feigned a punch at her, and she laughed, releasing her arms and rolling over in one smooth motion. Before he realized what she was doing he was flat on his back with a pillow in his face.

Mika stood over him, smirking. "Like you could take me. I'd have you begging for mercy in seconds."

Kyou stuck out his tongue at her, and they both laughed. "So will you come tonight?"

Her smile faltered a little, but recovered quick enough. "I suppose. Someone has to keep those drunkards in line after all, and I can't count on _you_ to do that." Kyou mocked being offended, picking himself up off the floor. Mika just laughed. "But before I turn the free labor loose, help me finish up this room? All that's left is cleaning up the painting stuff and putting the furniture in place. The walls should be dry by now."

"More work? Awww…" Kyou pretended to pout, and was rewarded with another pillow tossed at him, but this one he managed to dodge. "Missed me!" he teased, and Mika rolled her eyes.

"Come on, hurry up. I still have to get a shower and find something to wear after this."

"Yes ma'm!" Kyou teased some more, and began gathering up the plastic covers on her furniture. As they worked, on last thing occurred to him…

"Mika?"

"Hm?"

"Could I ask one favor in return for this manual labor?"

"I suppose…"

Kyou grinned. "Would you wear your hair down tonight? I don't think anyone's ever seen it down before, and I'd wager Wufei would like that a lot. It'd be a nice surprise, don't you think?" He turned to find Mika staring at him in pure amazement.

She blinked as if trying to make out whether he was serious. "I suppose I could… but it's so long, it always gets in my face and in the way of everything…"

"It's long?" Kyou was a little surprised at that. Her ponytails didn't seem that long… He has thought it shoulder length at best…

"Well, yeah, why do you think I keep it confined? If it were shoulder length or something it wouldn't be such a nuisance."

"Then why don't you cut it?"

She shrugged. "I did once… I dunno, it just didn't feel right. Guess I'm too used to the weight. All this weighs quite a bit, especially if it gets wet…" and to his shock she reached up and pulled out the elastic band, releasing the long brown waterfall of hair. She wasn't kidding… it was over halfway down her back! And he'd been right… it was quite pretty, even mussed as it was from being confined.

He smiled at her. "You should definitely wear it down tonight. And more often from now on. I don't think anyone realizes how pretty it is because you keep it tied back all the time. Or how _long_. Let it grow much farther and you really will be a twin."

She blinked, not sure whether to thank him for the compliment or beat him for saying she looked like Duo. She settled for just shrugging it off. "All right, if you think it'll be such a big deal then I'll wear it down tonight. We'll see about the more often part though. Deal?"

"Deal."

Kyou smiled to himself as he walked back to the living room. Not only had he convinced her to come tonight, but he had also hopefully laid a few fears to rest. He even convinced her to let down her hair! The gang was in for one helluva surprise, 'cause he sure wasn't going to tell them. It would be too much fun to watch them die of shock!

-Owari-


End file.
